Erzgebirgisch

Erzgebirgisch
Native to	Germany
Region	Saxony, Lower Saxony
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic High German Central German East Central German Erzgebirgisch
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None
Central German dialects   Erzgebirgisch (9)
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Erzgebirgisch (or Aarzgebèèrgsch, pronounced [aːɰtskəpɛːɰjkʂ]) is a Central German dialect, spoken mainly in the central Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains). It has received relatively little academic attention. Due to the high mobility of the population and the resulting contact with Upper Saxon, the high emigration rate and its low mutual intelligibility with other dialects, the number of speakers is decreasing.

As the following sections will show, Erzgebirgisch is very close to Upper Saxon but also has commonalities with Upper German dialects.

As of today, the Erzgebirgisch area comprises roughly the districts of Mittweida (southern area), Stollberg, Central Ore Mountain District, Annaberg-Buchholz, Freiberg (South) and Aue-Schwarzenberg. Some more speakers live in the town of Lichtenstein, in the Chemnitzer Land district.

Another community live in the Upper Harz Mountains in the Clausthal-Zellerfeld region (Lower Saxony). Their ancestors were miners and emigrated in the 16th century. Here it is referred to as the Upper Harz dialect.

Up to 1929, Erzgebirgisch was also spoken in other parts of Mittweida and Freiberg, in Chemnitz, Zwickau and in the extreme West of the Weißeritzkreis, but these areas are now dominated by Thuringian–Upper Saxon dialects.